South African Airways takes product offering a step higher

South African Airways (SAA) is taking its product offering, Step-Up, which allows customers to bid for a Business Class upgrade, to greater heights with record sales.

“We are pleased and excited with the enthusiasm our customers are showing for this product, within our bouquet of products offered on Flysaa.com, which are aimed to enhance our passengers’ travel needs.For the month of December, many leisure travellers took advantage of the Step-Up product giving them the opportunity toexperience our Business Class product, which translated into record sales for SAA,” said Kim Thipe, SAA’s head of marketing.

In April 2015, Step-Up was introduced to SAA customers and has proved a positive value-add for customers.The product gives customers the opportunity to bid online for an upgrade from Economy Class to Business Class where Business Class inventory is still available.

Step-Up was launched as the latest of SAA’s product offerings on Flysaa.com adding to the existing collections of ancillaries on offer, such as the newly-designed Fly SAA Duty Free online shop: www.flysaadutyfree.co.za, where customers can shop at leisure with purchases delivered directly to their aircraft seat.Other products where SAA makes travel easier are Advanced Seat Reservation (ASR), Additional Baggage, Travel Insurance, Car, and Hotel Hire.

“The product has seen such uptake due to marketing efforts and expanding the extent of this product to reach more customers, through messaging across all channels,” says Thipe.

“Besides these initiatives aimed to improve the customer experience, customers can expect more innovative product offerings in the near future in line with our strategic aim of improving customer service,” said Thipe.

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